What’s Happening?

After a 13-year absence, and a lot of speculation this week, it was finally made official in Motor City: Dodge is coming back to NASCAR! This is in the form of the Dodge RAM in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. During today’s live announcement, RAM CEO Tim Kuninskis unveiled the return of the Dodge RAM to the product show floor of Dodge dealers across the country as well as a new NASCAR 1500 concept race truck that will hit the Daytona high-banks in February of next year.

For more than a decade, customers and our dealer network asked about getting back into NASCAR. The desire was always there, but we didn’t have a plan that delivered the last tenth and following just didn’t fit our DNA. Now we have a solid plan that will set us apart from the field and will bring fresh new interest and engagement to America’s Motorsport.”

-Tim Kuninskis

You Need to Know:

• This announcement is part of RAM’s 25 announcements of products over an 18-month cadence. 40% of NASCAR fans are truck owners, many of them Dodge RAM owners. The timing of this announcement made sense.
• As alluded to in the quote above, Dodge has a plan to reintroduce its brand into NASCAR. Starting off, they will rejoin the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for the first time since the 2012 season. The plan includes moving up into the NASCAR Xfinity and Cup Series eventually, though the details and specifics of that have yet to be revealed.
• Teams that will be switching to the Dodge RAM or will be debuting alongside the new manufacturer have yet to be announced. No drivers are currently linked to the new brand. However, there have been rumors this week linking YouTube star Cleetus McFarland (aka Garrett Mitchel) to the Dodge brand. Currently Mitchel’s contact is through FORD so it remains to be seen if this will actually come to fruition.

At Michigan on Sunday, it was clear that the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was going to be difficult to beat. He won a stage, collected the fastest lap bonus, and led 98 of 200 laps.

He fought hard to hang on to the race lead in the closing stages, but Byron couldn’t hold back a charging Denny Hamlin. Byron was still going to finish second or third when the car finally ran out of fuel at the exit of Turn 4, despite his best efforts to save, coming just over two miles shy of the race finish. He dove into the pits and finished 28th instead.

Never had enough in the tank

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Advertisement

“No, we didn’t have enough,” said Byron when asked if there was anything different he could have done. “We were going to run out with 1.5 laps to go and I was just trying to manage both — trying to keep the lead and manage the gap and save fuel down the straight and on (corner) exit and everything. We just didn’t … ultimately, not as good mileage as the guys that were further back to start that run. And that’s just the way the cautions go and the nature of being closer to the front and burning more fuel.

“I don’t know, that one is like, you can’t really do a lot about (it). It sucks, it really stings but we had a really good car. I thought we executed well. It seemed like we waited a little bit on fuel for the last stop, and jsut burned more and not able to do much about that. It is what it is.”

Byron leads the regular season standings, but since earning victory in the season-opening Daytona 500, he’s had several almost-wins slip through his fingers. He led the most laps at Darlington, Charlotte, and now Michigan, but failed to reach Victory Lane each time

The good news is that he remains comfortably ahead in the championship, now leading teammate Kyle Larson by 41 points.

Advertisement

Read Also:

Ty Gibbs says a “win is more important than third” after strong Michigan finish

Denny Hamlin makes the fuel last for a dramatic Cup win at Michigan

To read more Motorsport.com articles visit our website.

BROOKLYN, Mich. (AP) — Alex Bowman hit a wall with the front end of his No. 48 Chevrolet as part of a multi-car crash in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan on Sunday.

Bowman got out of the car on his own and walked to an ambulance that transported him to the infield for an evaluation, which he passed.

“That hurt a lot,” he said. “I’ve taken a lot of hits.”

Austin Cindric’s No. 2 Ford made contact with Cole Custer’s No. 41 Ford and Daniel Suarez’s No. 99 Chevrolet, leading to Bowman colliding with the wall on lap 67 of the 200-lap race.

Bowman, who drives for Hendrick Motorsports, came to Michigan 12th in points and will drop in the standings after this latest setback.

He has finished 27th or worse in seven of his last nine starts and didn’t finish for a third time during the rough stretch.

Bowman was in the top 10 in five of the first six races this year, including a runner-up finish at Homestead-Miami in March. He earned his eighth career Cup Series victory last year at Chicago.

___

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Corey LaJoie, who parted ways with Spire Motorsports while racing in the Cup Series last year, has returned to the same team this year. However, LaJoie will race in the NASCAR Truck Series in the No.7 Chevy Silverado.

LaJoie will participate in nine Truck Series races, beginning at Michigan International Speedway, followed by his second race at Richmond Raceway on August 8. While he looks forward to a fresh chapter with Spire this year, his analogy offers an insight into his current emotions.

Fox Sports’ Bob Pockrass shared a video on X where LaJoie talks about his return to Spire Motorsports. He said:

“So yeah. It’s been, you know, a lot of emotions going back in there [at Spire]. Can I give you my analogy? … Here’s my analogy. It’s like when you work building a house for five years, and then your wife becomes a TikTok star and says she’s not happy anymore, she kicks you out. Then she calls you back a year later, and you have to go live in the guest room, and she’s there with a new boyfriend. That’s how this thing goes.”

LaJoie added that he missed working with the team. He said:

“But I’ve missed the, just like, the trenches of trying to work together for a common goal. Because it’s the only thing, racing’s the only thing in life that you can be measured by your effort, good, bad, or indifferent. So, I’ve missed like, the working collectively trying to get a truck faster, car faster, yourself faster, figuring out what your weaknesses are and making them better.”

LaJoie has driven for Spire in the Cup Series since 2021, making him a part of the team’s initial years in NASCAR. He said in a statement:

“I’m looking forward to getting back in the seat and chasing some NASCAR Craftsman Truck series wins.

“I put in a lot of work in the early days to help shape Spire Motorsports, and I still have some friends that have been there since day one, so it’ll be good to see them. The No. 07 team has been bringing some fast trucks to the track this year and are looking for a spot in the owner’s playoffs.

“It’ll be nice to have some consistency with the team to get acclimated to these vehicles, chase some wins and hopefully, a Craftsman Truck series owner’s championship.”

Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson added:

“While discussing our best path to bring Spire our first Craftsman Truck series championship and describing what we needed in a driver, the driver we were all talking about without saying his name was Corey LaJoie.

“So, when I ran into Corey in the motorhome lot one morning earlier this spring, I asked him what he thought about coming home and doing this.

“He is synonymous with what we’ve built here over the last few years and deserves this opportunity. I’m looking forward to getting him in the truck at Michigan to work out some kinks and start getting a game plan together for the playoffs.”

Denny Hamlin led only twice for five laps at Michigan International Speedway, but the final four were the ones that mattered as he earned his third victory of the 2025 season and 57th of his career.

Hamlin, who earlier scored consecutive victories at Martinsville and Darlington, is tied with Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell for the lead in NASCAR Cup Series victories this season.

It’s Hamlin’s ninth season with at least three victories, and he became the 18th driver with at least three wins at Michigan (his 11th track with at least three Cup wins). At 5,104 days since Hamlin’s June 19, 2011 win at the 2-mile oval, it’s the longest gap between wins at a track since Kyle Busch won at Talladega in 2023 (his first win there since 2008, a stretch of 5,474 days.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver earned his third victory of the season.

Joe Gibbs Racing got its first win at Michigan since August 2015 with Matt Kenseth. The team has six wins this season between Bell and Hamlin.

Despite running out of fuel and finishing 28th, William Byron still leads the regular-season standings by 41 points over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson. Hamlin improved a spot to third in the standings ahead of Bell and Chase Elliott.

The Joe Gibbs Racing star took the lead from William Byron on Lap 197 of 200.

Here is the finishing order for the Cup race at Michigan:

1. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Toyota
2. Chris Buescher, No. 17 Ford
3. Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Toyota
4. Bubba Wallace, No. 23 Toyota
5. Kyle Larson, No. 5 Chevrolet
6. Ross Chastain, No. 1 Chevrolet
7. Zane Smith, No. 38 Ford
8. Kyle Busch, No. 8 Chevrolet
9. Ryan Preece, No. 60 Ford
10. Brad Keselowski, No. 6 Ford
11. Erik Jones, No. 43 Toyota
12. Josh Berry, No. 21 Ford
13. Tyler Reddick, No. 45 Toyota
14. Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Chevrolet
15. Chase Elliott, No. 9 Chevrolet
16. Christopher Bell, No. 20 Toyota
17. AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Chevrolet
18. Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Chevrolet
19. Austin Dillon, No. 3 Chevrolet
20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Chevrolet
21. Justin Haley, No. 7 Chevrolet
22. Joey Logano, No. 22 Ford
23. Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Toyota
24. Ty Dillon, No. 10 Chevrolet
25. Riley Herbst, No. 35 Toyota
26. Cody Ware, No. 51 Ford
27. Noah Gragson, No. 4 Ford
28. William Byron, No. 24 Chevrolet
29. Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Chevrolet
30. Michael McDowell, No. 71 Chevrolet
31. Austin Cindric, No. 2 Ford
32. Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Ford
33. Todd Gilliland, No. 34 Ford
34. John H Nemechek, No. 42 Toyota
35. Cole Custer, No. 41 Ford
36. Alex Bowman, No. 48 Chevrolet